“Advertising has the dubious distinction of being the canary in the economic mine,” said Adam Smith, futures director at Group M, the media-buying unit owned by WPP Group. “TNS’s two successive quarters of ad decline is not canary-friendly, but the non-TNS items are the best hope of stopping U.S. advertising into submarining below the rate of economic growth.”

“Last week, TNS found that U.S. ad spending fell for the second quarter in a row, the first time that had happened since 2001. Depressing as it might appear, it’s a trend you might want to get used to, though not for the business-cycle reasons you might expect. Sure, ad expenditure is linked to the overall health of the U.S. economy.”